A Little Dinner at Timmins's

Set in a tidy London neighbourhood, the story follows Mr. and Mrs. Fitzroy Timmins as they settle into a newly furnished home on Lilliput Street. When a parcel of elegant vanity mirrors, a rose‑wood desk and a ruby‑tipped pen arrive, the cultured wife—an aspiring poet with a newborn son—rushes to fill the fresh stationery with verses, only to be pulled away by the demands of infant care and domestic chatter. Her husband, a diligent barrister on the Northern Circuit, returns home to find her scribbling not poetry but a list of guests for an upcoming dinner.

The couple’s modest ambitions quickly balloon into a comical scheme to host a gathering for Sir Thomas and Lady Kicklebury, prompting Rosa to calculate the costs of feeding twenty guests on a modest allowance. As neighbours drift in, a mischievous page watches the preparations unfold, hinting at the lively chaos that a well‑intentioned dinner can unleash. The opening offers a witty glimpse into Victorian social maneuvering, peppered with affectionate satire and the everyday turbulence of a growing family.